Transmission of data between communication devices can require large amounts of bandwidth, especially if the data includes large attachments, such as images, videos, audio files, or documents. Such bandwidth can be costly, especially when the transmission occurs over wireless networks. This can occur, for example, when the communication device which originates the transmission includes a wireless communication device and/or a mobile communication device (laptop, cell phone, PDA, wireless modem, etc.). Furthermore, on wireless networks, the process of transmitting data is generally slow relative to wired networks. Hence, resources at an originating wireless communication device can be occupied with the transmitting process at the expense of other processes, often to the extent that the communication device can appear frozen until the transmission is complete. When transmitting data using a mobile communication device, operation of a radio is required. Such operation is power intensive and reduces the operational time of the mobile communication device due to reduction in power stored at the battery.
Furthermore, communication devices which receive transmitted data can have limits on the size of attachments which can be accepted, and data which has attachments that are of a size larger than the limit can be rejected, sometimes without the knowledge of a user of the receiving communication device.